The Headmaster's Office
by FeeBe
Summary: Sequel to- The End is Just the Beginning. Harry heads up to the Headmasters office and tells Dumbledore what he really thinks. EWE. Soulmates. Trick or Treat Challenge- McGonagall 10- Soulmate


They had barely had ten minutes peace before Hermione came to find Harry and took him away, to be fawned over by the awaiting crowd. 'They just want to see you are ok,' she said. 'They need the reassurance', she said. 'After everything you owe it to them', she said. And each time 'she said' the boy broke just a little more inside. Not one of them noticed.

Well that wasn't strictly true. The one who would have noticed the most had been pushed to the side. When he approached the saviour, he was deftly deflected away by this red-haired boy or that no-longer-so-bushy haired girl. Two blondes noticed as well. One was seated at the tables contemplating his own troubles and so had barely a thought to spare. But the other, with silvery eyes and a fae like demeanour knew and pursed her lips.

_After a while, exhausted and drained, Harry found himself sitting on a bench near Luna, _wondering where Neville had disappeared off to. No doubt he was lending a hand behind the scenes, probably sorting out the greenhouses, or rescuing some plant that had been used in the castles defence, maybe a Venomous Tentacula or Devil's snare.

For the moment they were undisturbed but before they could be noticed Luna spoke, _"I'd want some peace and quiet, if it were me," she said._

_"I'd love some," Harry replied._

_"I'll distract them all," she said. "Use your Cloak."_

_And before he could say a word she had cried, "Oooh, look, a Blibbering Humdinger!" and pointed out of the window. Everyone who heard looked around, and Harry slid the Cloak up over himself, and got to his feet._

_Now he could move through the Hall without interference. He spotted Ginny two tables away _but felt no urge to approach and disturb her mourning. Gone was the feeling of the monster in his belly when he saw her leaning her head against Dean's shoulder. Ron and Hermione were wrapped in an embrace standing by the head of the stretcher that held Fred. Harry wiped roughly at the tears that prickled his eyes, there would be time to grieve later. He passed by Tonks and Remus and wondered who would tell Andromeda. Oh, didn't that make his heart shudder at the thought of the losses suffered by Andromeda Tonks. Left to carry on all alone, looking after her Grandson, his Godson Teddy. His. Godson! And in that moment, he swore to himself that there would be no rash decisions keeping him from knowing the child. He would be as involved as Andromeda allowed. There would be no cupboards for Teddy!

Everywhere he looked he saw families, hugging, and rejoicing in being reunited. And yet he was apart from them. Alone.

Harry reached the great staircase, where he saw Neville moving fallen bricks to the side, the sword of Gryffindor shoved roughly through his belt. From under his cloak he reached out a hand and placed it gently on Nev's shoulder giving a firm squeeze before dropping his arm. Neville looked around for a moment, not seeing anyone near, he then quirked his lips in a half smile and tapped the centre of his chest.

"It's alright Harry, I'll find you later. Take as much time as you need," and with a nod he turned back to his labour.

_Great chunks were missing from the marble staircase, part of the balustrade was gone, and rubble and bloodstains occurred every few steps as he climbed._

_Since last he had seen it, the gargoyle guarding the entrance to the Headmaster's study had been knocked aside, it stood lopsided, looking a little punch-drunk, and Harry wondered whether it would be able to distinguish passwords anymore._

_"Can I go up?" he asked the gargoyle._

_ "Feel free," groaned the statue._

Harry paused to levitate the stone guardian into a more upright position so that it wasn't so precariously balanced. He heard it thank him as he stepped onto the now stationary spiral staircase.

_Harry pushed open the door at the top._

_He had one, brief glimpse of the stone Pensieve on the desk where he had left it, and then an ear-splitting noise made him cry out, thinking of curses and returning Death Eaters and the rebirth of Voldemort - _

_But it was applause. _The long dead Headmasters honoured him with their thanks, calling out their gratitude from their places around the wall. Harry looked up to the portrait immediately behind the desk, in it sat Albus Dumbledore at his desk, smiling down on Harry like some mysterious benefactor.

Harry ignored him for a moment and turned to the others, "Your thanks are appreciated. It's nice to be recognised for an act I have done and not for the acts of my parents." Dumbledore started to speak but Harry ignored him in favour of turning to Phineus Nigellus.

"Headmaster Black, our house has fallen far in the last few years, with the Government maligning our Heir and Lord, and imprisoning him without trial. However, you should be pleased to know that there is an emerging Heir who will be returned to the fold. Andromeda Tonks has given both her husband and her daughter to this war," surprisingly Phineus gasped in shock at the news, "and is alone, so I will invite her to be a Black once more."

"Off course that rascal of a boy made you his Heir," the Headmaster tried to sound gruff, but tears clogged his voice and made it break.

Harry held up his hand, "there is more. Nymphadora bore a son to Remus Lupin. Edward Remus Lupin and he already displays the Black trait. If Andromeda agrees I shall name him my Heir."

Phineus Black, huffed but nodded. Harry finally turned back to Albus Dumbledore.

"I am not pleased with you," Harry stated flatly. Then he lifted his right hand and held his forefinger and thumb about an inch apart, "In fact, I would say I am this far from hating you. You may once have been a great man but your secrets, half-truths and lies, nearly cost us everything. There is no possible reason that you could not have included someone like Bill Weasley, a known curse breaker and expert in dark artefacts, in the hunt for the Horcruxes. And that is just the tip of the iceberg. I think your biggest crime though is ensuring I was raised the way I was. Unwanted, unloved and ignorant. Ignorant of the magical world and my heritage. Now at nearly eighteen I have to try and learn everything I should have grown up knowing."

"What is it you wish to know Harry?" Albus asked quietly.

"Did you know about the frying pan, the threats, the hand-me-downs, the cupboard and the starvation?"

Albus shook his head but his face told the truth.

"What purpose did ensuring I was treated that way serve? What excuse have you got for watching a small boy be neglected and abused?"

"I worried you would grow like your father, and then at the end you would not…"

"Did you ever stop to think," Harry was becoming angry now that it had been confirmed, "That I might have been like my Mother. My kind, gentle Mother who would do anything to help anyone?"

Albus looked ashamed, "I did what I…."

Harry scoffed, "Yeah! You did what you thought was right. In my world, and yes, I claim the muggle world as my own," more than one portrait gasped, "what you have done is illegal. You would be jailed for being complicit in the abuse of a child." Harry paused to breathe and calm himself, the man was dead after all, the portrait merely a reflection of who he had been in life and not the man himself. So being angry served no purpose. "And now I am left here at seventeen, with a gaping hole in my chest and no idea what it means, because you thought that I didn't deserve the right to be treated like a human being. Instead of raising me to have a good character, instead of educating me to know right from wrong, you raised me like livestock, only fit for slaughter!" Tears leaked out the sides of his eyes, Albus was stunned silent.

Surprisingly it was the very deaf Dexter Fortescue with his ear trumpet that picked up on something that the others had all missed during Harry's rant.

"Boy!" he creaked.

Harry turned sharply but lost the flicker of rage when he saw who had spoken, "With all due respect Headmaster, please don't call me that. That is what _they _called me!"

He did not have to explain who. Headmaster Fortescue nodded readily, "My apologies Mr Potter, I would not have used it if I had known. Now, you said you have a hole in your chest?"

His encouraging smile, drew out Harry's words, "Yes for a while now. Right here. In retrospect I think it has been present since we stayed in Grimmauld place at the end of last Summer. Though with all the injuries I have had it is a little difficult to be sure." He rubbed at his sternum again.

"Feels like it's pulling you somewhere doesn't it?" the old man asked slyly.

"No….." Harry stopped to think in the middle of answering. He took a breath, and allowed the feeling to wash over him. Well now, that was odd. "Um wow,…yes, now that you mention it it does. It's pulling me towards the door. It's just I think I have been fighting it, whatever it is for so long. You know with the war and everything, that I haven't had the chance to just sit and 'feel' it. So, I never noticed that before."

"Mmhmmm, possibly it wasn't as strong before either," Dexter agreed. He continued in a kind voice, "Harry in the Wizarding world there are a small number of people who are blessed by magic."

"Go on," Harry said cautiously. The last thing he wanted was another expectation placed on his shoulders. "A month after their seventeenth birthday, when their magical core has settled. They start to feel the pull. This pull will draw them to the person that magic has created just for them. It is an indicator of the proximity of this person. A person who will see them for who they are, not what they have done, or how much money they have or any of that nonsense. It draws them to their soulmate."

"Like the other half of their soul?"

"No, it is more like their souls are compatible. They will be the one person who will support them no matter what and love them unconditionally, if they both so choose." The Headmaster by now had devolved into his lecturing mode. "In my day there were betrothals all over the place so, often people with soulmates were actually engaged to someone else. Which is quite sad when you think about it but Magic understands this and allows them to have whatever relationship they choose. Usually they ended up being confidents. You have given so much to magic, it seems right that she should give something back to you."

"So, I don't _have_ to marry this person?" Harry asked.

"No there is no obligation at all, but it is something worth thinking about. Not everyone is lucky enough to find someone who matches them so completely?"

Harry moved to stare out the Headmasters window, watching the lights that people carried as they made their way home from Hogwarts. And for the first time in a long time he turned his thoughts to the future.


End file.
